Entering into the mystery of the Eucharist

The Eucharist is described as the source and summit of the Catholic faith and of our lives. This great sacrament is prefigured throughout the Old and New Testaments. Yet, how do I understand this and make it my own? How do I enter into this mysterious concept? The word “source” makes me think of rivers and lakes. They are all connected to a reservoir and a source that makes them possible and sustains them. The word “summit” makes me think of mountains that we look at and admire from afar at times, and at other times, on which we stand and admire the view they provide.

As I ponder this great Sacrament of the Eucharist, recall that a sacrament is a visible reality that makes present an invisible reality. It is something visible that makes the invisible more knowable and accessible. In order to enter this great mystery I invite you to consider the following passage from Psalm 1:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

The second half of this verse is what I think of when I hear the Eucharist described as the source and summit of our Catholic life. The Eucharist makes us that person who is “like a tree planted by streams of water” and allows us to yield good fruit and to prosper in the work we do to build up the kingdom. And how do we take this experience of the Eucharist at Mass with us to be that living stream? As Psalm 1 says: “blessed is he who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night.” The law of the Lord is his Word. As mentioned, the Eucharist is pre-figured/pre-announced and slowly revealed to us in both the Old and New Testaments.

So how do we come to understand the Eucharist as this source and summit? I suggest that it’s through studying and praying with Scripture. I am not telling you anything new or revealing to you anything we don’t already know, because if we look at the structure of the Mass, this is already present. Each Mass begins with the penitential rite where we acknowledge that we are creatures standing before a benevolent creator, our source, our beginning, and our sustaining grace, and we acknowledge that we have fallen short of reflecting his goodness in our actions. We once had the tree of life in our midst when we were in the garden, but that wasn’t enough for our first parents. They, like us, desired more prestige and power and so in pride disobeyed God’s command and took fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Because of this sin, we stood apart from this great God. But while we were yet sinners, he sent his son from the summit down to us to show us the way to eternal salvation. Next, we enter into the Liturgy of the Word. Here we encounter the law of God and we enter into a reflection and a dialogue with him, the source, so that we might delight in that law which frees us from the slavery of sin and guides us up to that summit of holiness.

Finally, we have the Liturgy of the Eucharist and we enter into Christ’s passion. Like Isaac, Abraham’s only son, Jesus, God’s only son, carries the wood on his shoulders for the sacrifice and is himself the sacrifice. He was raised up onto the cross to heal the world, as the seraph was put up onto a pole to heal the Israelites in the desert. Remember they had been bitten by serpents and were dying, but if they looked up and gazed upon the seraph, they were healed. So too we receive his precious Body and Blood as that source of life. Each part of the Mass points to this summit, this final act that saves us. Then we are sent out to proclaim this to the world and delight in it day and night.

How can we understand the Eucharist as the source and summit of our Catholic life? For me the most powerful thing has been at each Mass to ponder these mysteries and to take an active role of participating in the Mass with my entire being. I examine my week quietly before Mass so that at the penitential rite, I am truly acknowledging my faults and asking others to pray for me. I like to close my eyes during the readings and the homily and to ponder and meditate on what the Lord is saying without any distractions. When we enter into the Liturgy of the Eucharist, I place all my worldly cares on the altar as an offering when the priest says, “lift up your hearts,” and I focus on the prayers he presents on our behalf to God. At the words of consecration, “this is my body; this is my blood,” I close my eyes and imagine Christ standing at the altar saying these words, and as the host is raised, I pray interiorly the words of St. Thomas: “My Lord and my God.” When the chalice is raised, I pray the prayer: “Lord by your most precious Body and Blood you have saved the world.”

How do we enter into this mystery and make it our own? We meditate on the Word of God. We ponder it at each Mass, and we let it seep into our hearts until we find ourselves pondering it day and night. This gives us a delight that is beyond compare, and through it, we bear fruit.